Hidden Facets
by Forgotten Lake
Summary: Sasuke thought he was doing well after leaving Konoha. As usual, however, Naruto shows up and screws up his plans. Why is Naruto joining Orochimaru again?
1. Day Three

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto. This is evidenced by the fact I like my stories to make sense, and frankly, I think Naruto doesn't half the time, and I'm not talking about the chakra part of it. And any resemblance to any other fanfiction is purely unintentional-I have very clear ideas for where this fiction is going, many plot points of which won't be seen for quite some time. Personally, I've never read any Naruto fanfiction like this anyways.

**Funny Note**: I always swore I'd never write Naruto fan fiction. At first, because I didn't really like the manga, and later, because I just didn't think it was the type of story I could write. I had a couple of ideas; even tried writing on one, but it just didn't seem to flow. I had another idea, and I decided I'd stick with it, simply because I wanted to write a story for my friend. It's been a bit of pain, but I hope I do the idea justice.

**Dedication**: So, in essence, this story is written for, dedicated to, and a birthday present for Tsubasa Kya. She's my best friend, sister I never had since I grew up with three older brothers (love them dearly, but it's nice to have a sister), and the best person I have to giggle over our stories with. For her birthday present (And I'm not telling you which day that is because she'd kill me…) along with this story being written for her, I'm going to do my best to update this story every two weeks, or the story that will eventually accompany this one, until they're finished or until a year's up. She also gets to gloat over me writing a Naruto story (I ended up posting a one-shot while I was writing this, but this is a chapter story, which is different, and I'm sure you'll point that out, TK, so I'm acknowledging it before hand). I'll also do my best to NOT talk to her about plot and such, so she can be genuinely surprised and just enjoy the story as a reader. This has already been a big pain in the butt over the past few months, because I am so USED to having her look over all my stuff, and talking to her about it, and so on, but I shall try to persevere. And last, but not least, she's been complaining about how hard it is to find a good Naruto fanfiction, so I hope this works out for her…

**Warnings**: This might end up being a Sasuke/Naruto fic. TK likes that pairing, but I'm not sure how well the pairing will end up fitting into the plot. It will definitely have a lot of friendship between the two of them in it. And there will probably be a few same sex pairings here and there, simply because that is how it works in real life. Also, I haven't really watched the show after the battle between Sasuke and Naruto when Sasuke was deserting. I tried, but holy crap, they sucked, and while Naruto has several good elements, it also has a lot that annoys me and they just seemed to increase after those last few episodes after the Sasuke Retrieval Arc. I prefer Naruto fanfiction to canon, at least the better stories, but that's a personal opinion. So if something isn't canon, it's because I haven't seen/read it. My apologies, but I simply couldn't stand it anymore…

I'll probably have more ANs, but for now I'll shut up, and get on with the story.

**Hidden Facets**

_Day Three_

Otogakure was different from Konoha. As Orochimaru's prospective body in training, he was granted much more leniency, and at the same time, was hardly allowed to do pretty much anything. His life consisted almost primarily of completing various training exercises and doing whatever errands Orochimaru wanted him to do. At Konoha he'd spent much of his time training, but a lot of it was also spent with his team, Kakashi, Naruto, and Sakura. He avoided thinking about them when he could, and when he did he resolutely told himself that they were useless, and had nothing to do with his quest for Itachi's death. Aside from occasional nightmares, he was dealing.

He avoided thinking about the dreams when he could and generally made sure he was too tired to do anything but sleep, but it didn't always work. And it was always the same dream, though a different one then the one that had plagued him before his departure from Konoha. In it, he was little and was once again walking through the Uchiha district. However, instead of his clan's bodies, he saw his classmates and various other people he knew from Konoha. His younger self felt panic and started to hurry, running faster and faster to his home, a feeling of dread increasing the closer he got. He got there just in time to see himself, older, killing his teammates. Kakashi was already dead, and he was going after Sakura with a chidori when Naruto threw himself in front of her, and he plunged his hand through Naruto's chest.

Sakura fell sobbing, holding onto Naruto, and Sasuke took a sword and swiped her head off. He turned and looked at little Sasuke, eyes like Itachi's whirling. A crazy grin came over his face. "You know what you must do, don't you?" he asked, and Sasuke would wake up every time with his older self's blade plunging through his chest, crackling with electricity.

Sasuke shook his head slightly, feeling particularly grim. Orochimaru had called him, and Sasuke never knew what to expect from the Snake Sannin.

What he saw when he opened the door only proved his foreboding, except it was much, much worse then he might have ever imagined. Naruto was sitting in one of the seats in front of Orochimaru's desk, looking small and…different, despite the fact he was wearing his normal outfit. And he wasn't yelling-just sitting there quietly.

When Sasuke's eyes finally met Orochimaru's, Sasuke held back a wince. He had this odd smile on his face that seemed almost…satisfied. "Forgive me for not forewarning you," he said, and even his voice oozed a level of smugness that seemed disturbing, "I forgot. Might I…introduce you to Otagakure's newest recruit? Uzamaki Naruto."

Sasuke's blood ran cold. What?! Naruto would never…but he could hear no protest from his teammate's lips. "Naruto?"

The blond turned around, and even his face seemed different-shy, awkward, irresolute…and puzzled. "You…you look familiar…" he said.

"Familiar…sir?" he asked, looking at Orochimaru and doing his best to keep his voice calm-unlike his mind. Had Naruto…lost his memory? Had it been taken? While Sasuke knew that going to Otogakure, despite being a betrayal to his home village, was crucial to gaining strength, he'd always known Konoha was Naruto's place. He couldn't help but think of his teammate's pranks, his constant smiling expression, him hitting on Sakura and her hitting him back not very gently. Naruto, in many ways, personified Konoha to Sasuke and the idea of Naruto serving Orochimaru was disturbing.

"Young Naruto here suffered a bit of an accident in the woods while out on a mission. He's lost most of his memories-all the way back until not too long before his fifth birthday," Orochimaru said, his voice remaining smug despite the sympathy he put into his voice, probably for Naruto's sake.

No…Naruto…he couldn't have… Sasuke's gaze turned to Naruto, who was fidgeting and looking away from Sasuke. "How? I thought…" Sasuke couldn't bring himself to say the words aloud, but he knew what Naruto carried now, and thought something like that happening was practically impossible.

"Naruto, why don't you go see Kabuto again? I think he has a few more tests to run. He should be waiting for you right about now." Orochimaru's voice was slightly more…kind almost as he spoke to the child.

"Um…all right," Naruto said his movement awkward as he stood up. Sasuke supposed that made sense-if Naruto had lost that many years of memories, then despite the fact his body was trained, his mind wouldn't know how to use his almost thirteen year old body. And beyond that, Naruto was almost always full of energy, whereas this Naruto was…much too solemn. He'd never thought he would be annoyed; to have Naruto acting like a normal human being, but it was wrong.

Naruto's eyes flickered to Sasuke's again, staring at him. Sasuke wanted to look away, but was unable to. "You look so familiar…" Naruto whispered, before leaving out the door.

Sasuke stayed staring after the Naruto who was not Naruto for several moments before snapping back to Orochimaru. Orochimaru was openly smirking now, his elbows on his desk, his hands folded as he propped his chin on them. Sasuke felt sick at the thought of Naruto, who always seemed to retain an innocence strange for his years, and who was now even younger, being at the mercy of this man. At least he'd walked into it with open eyes.

"Well…what do you think?" Orochimaru said his tone smugger then ever.

"I think I'd be very suspicious, if it were anyone other then Naruto," Sasuke replied, trying to sound professional, "But as the container of the Kyuubi, how could his brain be damaged enough to blank out that many years? Shouldn't the Kyuubi be able to heal any damage he takes?"

Orochimaru smiled as he leaned back. "I was quite suspicious at first, but he's been here a few days going through various tests. He was out performing a routine message mission with someone, shall we say, favorable to our cause, when they were attacked. Naruto's skull was partially crushed-any normal human would have died. Kabuto's theory is that because of the extent and delicacy of the damage, the Kyuubi was unable to heal him correctly, and when he woke up, he didn't recognize even his own teammate. Quite wisely, my little spy rushed Naruto here and explained the situation to me, and left to report the Naruto was missing in action, presumed dead."

Sasuke felt a bit disconnected from the world. Not only was Naruto in Orochimaru's clutches, not only was most of his memory gone leaving him open to Orochimaru's manipulations, but soon he'd be reported as presumably dead, leaving no rescue parties, no search parties…practically no chance for Naruto to escape. Not to mention he felt a slight pang of pity for everyone who cared about Naruto so deeply believing he was dead.

Sasuke liked to think he'd put Konoha behind him, but he hadn't, and couldn't exactly lie to himself about it anymore. First it was the nightmares, and now combined with his intense desire to get Naruto AWAY from Orochimaru? However, when Sasuke looked into Orochimaru's eyes, he could see the bastard knew he hated this situation, knew Orochimaru was enjoying every instant of it, and Sasuke was left once again to the knowledge that he just wasn't strong enough. There was no way he'd be able to take Naruto and escape from Orochimaru's clutches.

"What will you do now?" Sasuke asked in a rather calm tone. Just because they both knew Sasuke was not happy about this didn't mean Sasuke wouldn't pretend everything was all right.

"Naruto is going to be training alongside you now, and you will be sharing your rooms with him. You will also be responsible for overseeing his training when I am too busy. He shall be a weapon the likes of which none have ever seen before within a year or two," Orochimaru's voice was full of glee and gloating and smugness, and Sasuke hated him for it, and hated that Orochimaru was manipulating the situation like this, so that Sasuke would be forced to see his best friend become a pawn of his.

Well, he'd just do his best to thwart Orochimaru's plans. Despite the fact that he knew Orochimaru would anticipate this-might even be setting this up to see him fail for his own personal amusement, he would show the bastard. He would train Naruto and together they would defeat the bastard and escape, and Sasuke would send him back to Konoha, where he belonged, safe, and Sasuke would go after his brother, and kill him, and things would be the way they were supposed to be. It might take awhile, but over the years, Sasuke developed a capacity for patience that was more then up to this task.

"How have you explained the situation to him? He must know this isn't Konoha, and even if he's never been the brightest, at least be a little suspicious," Sasuke stated.

"You underestimate your friend, I think," Orochimaru said, "Indeed, I think our delightful little Kyuubi brat was hiding many secrets from you. Oh, you weren't expecting that, were you? Oblivious little stupid Naruto, obsessed with becoming the Hokage and ramen and the color orange. But we've been talking to him, during our interviews, and even as a five year old…most impressive," Orochimaru said with a sly grin, "Oh yes, my dear Sasuke, he was indeed suspicious and confused. He'd never heard of Otogakure, and knew of no alliance with Konoha. But I explained to him all about how the poor old Sandaime was slaughtered by his two students, Jiraiya and Tsunade, and how they've taken over Konoha, and I, the only remaining true-hearted Sannin and devoted student of the aforementioned Sandaime, seek their destruction. He's confused, but determined to avenge the Sandaime. So cute-almost like a little you!"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. He'd twisted the truth in just the perfect way to convince Naruto to side with Orochimaru. And Orochimaru was so smug, about all the apparent things he knew about Naruto that Sasuke didn't. It bothered Sasuke, but he figured that it couldn't be that much he didn't know, and it's not like Sasuke ever went out of his way to find out about Naruto and could be explained that way. Besides, he was only five now. How many secrets could he be hiding? Sasuke already knew about the Kyuubi.

"Anyways," Orochimaru flicked his hand sideways in an obvious dismissal, "You know where Kabuto normally is-why don't you go and fetch him and show him his new home. I've already sent someone by with a cot and some clothes for him. Training will begin with the both of you the day after tomorrow. I told poor Naruto I'd give him a chance to pull himself together, after the shock, and I thought you could take the chance to get reacquainted. Have fun!"

Sasuke's fists clenched, but he pulled off a slight bow and left, fuming all the way as he stomped to Kabuto's lair. Orochimaru didn't know it, but he'd just made the second place spot on his list of most loathed people, right behind Itachi.

Naruto was sitting quietly as a friendly Kabuto chatted to him. Sasuke truly loathed the man. He was always cheerful and smiling and the next thing you knew, a kunai was buried in your back. Well, not that that wasn't standard operating procedure for some shinobi, but something about Kabuto just turned Sasuke off.

"You're coming with me," Sasuke said briefly, arms folded in front of him.

Naruto looked up, and it was so strange to see someone who both was and wasn't Naruto staring at him like that. He nodded, after a moment, and jumped off the examination table. "Thank you for healing me," he said with a bit of a bow to Kabuto.

Kabuto smiled, and ruffled Naruto's hair. "It was my pleasure."

Sasuke wanted to chop Kabuto's hand off. The sneaky bastard had no right to be acting like some friendly older-brother type person to Naruto, no right at all. It was enough to distract him from his slight shock at Naruto's overly polite behavior.

He got a reminder soon enough. "Where are we going, sir?" Naruto asked, coming to stand besides him.

Sasuke scowled at him. "Don't call me sir," he snapped before he really thought about it. He ignored Kabuto's obvious amusement, concentrating on Naruto, "Just follow me."

Naruto sighed a bit, but he followed Sasuke readily enough as Sasuke turned around abruptly and stalked off. Silence filled the corridors as they walked, and while before, Sasuke had no problem walking through the slightly sinister hallways, it was starting to bother him. It took him a few minutes to realize what was wrong, and he wondered why he hadn't realized it earlier. Normally, Naruto would be bouncing all over the place, demanding to know where they were going, who he was, and whatever other nonsense that routinely came from him. Sasuke didn't necessarily pay that much attention to it, but it had become…expected while with Naruto, there to be a constant, almost…comforting level of background noise.

And so he found himself asking, "Don't you have any questions?" before he really thought about it. He liked the silence, and he used to think he wanted nothing more then Naruto to just SHUT UP, but…

"You don't mind if I ask some?" Naruto's voice sounding hesitant was some how more foreign then the silence and he almost expected to look back and see a five-year old Naruto, instead of the Naruto who was the same age as him, at least physically, following behind him.

"I'm not going to kill you," Sasuke said, then almost winced a bit. He almost had, not too long ago.

"Um…" Naruto said, "What's your name?"

"Uchiha Sasuke. I was your genin teammate," Sasuke found himself tacking on that unnecessary information on without conscious thought, maybe in a bid to establish some form of recognition, or relationship, or something! This…calm between them wasn't natural.

"You…you knew me before?" Naruto asked hesitantly.

"To an extent," Sasuke replied, cursing himself for even saying anything.

"Were…were we friends?" Naruto's voice was hesitant and hopeful and maybe even a bit disbelieving. As if having a friend was this sacred, unattainable thing.

Sasuke opened his mouth to say no, and instead found himself blurting out, "Of a sort."

"Wow…" Naruto breathed out, and Sasuke found he almost didn't regret saying they were friends. "What was I like?"

"I guess about the same as you are now, except older," Sasuke said.

"Um…do I really like wearing this?" Naruto asked. Sasuke stopped dead and turned around to stare at Naruto. He was picking at his outfit, the look on his face disbelieving.

"You don't like it?" Sasuke asked, working hard to keep the incredulity from his voice.

He must not have completely succeeded-Naruto blushed slightly. "It's all right, I guess…it's just so…bright."

"We can find you something else to wear. Lord Orochimaru likes his shinobi wearing a uniform of sorts anyways," Sasuke said, turning around and continuing to walk.

"I don't have to wear…sorry…" Naruto said, "That was rude of me."

Sasuke's lip twitched slightly, though Naruto probably couldn't see it since he was still trailing behind Sasuke. It was nice, to finally see a bit of the Naruto he knew back, even if he then apologized for it. "I'm sorry to say it is indeed a part of the outfit." Sasuke said. He figured that Naruto was talking about the purple robe. Sasuke had never exactly cared about his clothes that much, but he was still having to get used to the ugly purple thing. He swore he was going to burn it, once they left.

"So…did you graduate with me? That would make you two years younger, unless you skipped too, but you don't look that much older then me…" Naruto trailed off.

"I am approximately the same age," Sasuke said. He'd always known Naruto had failed twice, but…he never really thought about it before. He always acted to carefree about it, most of the time. He vaguely remembered his father being mad about some student getting to get in early because of the Hokage, and wondered if that was actually Naruto, "And we graduated together."

"So you got to start early too," Naruto said, "That's really cool."

"No-you failed twice," Sasuke said matter-of-factly.

"But I couldn't have!" Naruto protested, "I just couldn't! The Sandaime said I couldn't move out on my own until I passed the written part of the graduation exam for genin, and I did it just…well, it seems like only a couple weeks ago, but I did! I swear! Matron made sure I wouldn't fail!"

Naruto…passed the written exam before he was five? Suddenly what Orochimaru said about Naruto having secrets was starting to make sense. He always acted like such an idiot, but…Sasuke stopped himself from going overboard and actually thought about it. While he'd never thought about it that much, people always seemed to avoid, or ignore Naruto, except for a few people. When he was younger, he thought it was all the pranks he pulled. Sasuke had heard about him even before Naruto joined Sasuke's class, and before that he knew Naruto often served time after class for punishments with some of his classmates, because they'd talk about him. So, if the Hokage made it so that the orphanage couldn't get rid of Naruto until he could pass the written exam…

"What do you mean; Matron made sure you wouldn't fail?" Sasuke kept his tone light, casual, but he wanted to confirm his suspicions.

"Well, Matron doesn't…she doesn't like me that much," Naruto's voice sounded crestfallen, "So she made sure I was ready to move out extra early. I don't mind though," Naruto reassured, "It was so much more fun living on my own! I got to eat however much I wanted, and I didn't have to study all the time, and I don't have to clean if I don't want to, though I don't really like it when it gets gross so I clean sometimes…"

"When did the Matron start teaching you?" Sasuke was now morbidly interested in learning more about Naruto. Apparently, Naruto was a lot more secretive then Sasuke would have ever dreamed of. Though Sasuke could understand why he wouldn't like to talk about these kinds of things. Still…to enable Naruto to pass the exam before he was even five-how much had the bitch made him study just to get rid of him a few years earlier?

"I don't know…seems like it's the first thing I remember doing," Naruto admitted.

Now, Sasuke had been raised to learn early. He'd been encouraged to learn to read by his mother, who had made it fun. She'd read stories to him about shinobi and how they used some brilliant strategy to win against odds, and so Sasuke had started to learn to read about four, unlike some of the others who he knew had maybe a year later. But it was only for a little bit a day-he was also encouraged to go out and play. They'd wanted him to be strong physically as well as mentally.

But being made to spend all of his time learning to read and write and whatever else the Hokage required before he could move out? That must have been…

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" Sasuke found himself asking. He had always assumed Naruto had just always wanted to be Hokage, because ever since Sasuke had really met Naruto, that was true. But if Naruto really wasn't that stupid, maybe this was different too…Sasuke idly wondered as well as to why Naruto acted so dumb. Naruto had to get his memory back someday, and when he did…Sasuke felt inclined to corner him and figure out his friend. Sasuke didn't like mysteries, and now that he was finding the person he'd considered to be his best friend was one, he wanted to find out.

"Well…I…I never really thought about it that much," Naruto admitted, "I'm going to be a shinobi, I know. I guess…" Naruto trailed off.

"But did you always want to be a shinobi?" Sasuke questioned. He had, but that was because he was an Uchiha.

"I don't know," Naruto said, "What else is there to do?" His tone was rather matter of fact, and in some ways, Sasuke understood that part, because he'd been raised to simply consider his becoming a shinobi a fact as well.

Sasuke shrugged in response and stopped, because they were in front of his door. "I guess this will be where you're staying for awhile."

Sasuke opened his door. He could hear voices from the entry way, and he hurriedly kicked off his shoes and entered the living room off the central hallway to the left. Two of the lesser shinobi under Orochimaru's command where sitting there on HIS couch, chatting away. "What are YOU doing here?" Sasuke bit out.

The two shinobi jumped up then slouched slightly. "We're here on Lord Orochimaru's orders," the taller one said, eyeing Sasuke with a dismissive eye.

Sasuke remembered what Orochimaru said about people dropping by, but… "He told you to drop some furniture off, I don't remember anything being mentioned about you simply relaxing on my sofa when you were finished.

"What do you know? You're just a walking vessel for Orochimaru who will be dead before three years are out," the shorter man sneered this time.

Sasuke moved in a flash and was behind them with a kunai to each of their throats before they could blink. "If I might make a suggestion?"

The two shinobi froze and gulped, and didn't say a thing.

"Three years is a long, long time. You better be a little more worried about me now, and not about the fact that I'll be gone in three years, though your concern is appreciated," Sasuke said in a deadly voice as he pressed the kunai a little deeper.

"Are you…are you going to kill us?" the taller one whimpered.

"You'd stain my carpet if I cut your throats with kunai…I could just break your necks, but…I think I'll let you go. And I would advise you to warn your fellow shinobi to be a little more careful around me. There is a reason Orochimaru wishes me to be his next vessel, aside from my eyes," Sasuke said his voice pitched dangerously low.

"Yes sir!" they said, voices trembling slightly.

Sasuke rolled his eyes slightly at the shinobi's cowardice. He could see Naruto's already wide eyes widen, and a small grin start to break onto his young face. Sasuke was glad Naruto was amused and not scared-he had been slightly worried as a younger child Naruto might be a bit squeamish, but apparently not.

"Well, get out of here already," Sasuke growled as he removed the kunai from their throat.

The two shinobi, knees shaking, half stumbled, half ran out the door, slamming it shut behind them. "Pitiful," Sasuke said, "What pathetic excuses for shinobi."

Naruto's grin grew slightly. "You're really strong, aren't you?"

The admiration shining out of his rival's eyes was slightly…creepy. "Yes. So were you before you lost your memory," Sasuke found himself saying, because Naruto wasn't supposed to admire him.

"Wow…really?" Naruto asked.

"Mostly through sheer stubbornness," Sasuke decided to add, "You never thought things through. And you kept getting up when other wiser people would wait for a better opportunity later." It wasn't really fair, but the criticism made him feel better. He'd managed to harden himself back to what he was like before he was put on a genin team, and here was Naruto, once again breaking down the barriers like they didn't even exist, the stupid idiot.

Except…he wasn't an idiot…not really, if he passed the exam to become genin before he was five…

"Oh…" Naruto bit his lip, as if he wanted to say something, but refrained.

This time, Sasuke managed to keep himself from saying anything to promote Naruto to speak his mind, because after all, he really did want silence, even if Naruto being silent, of all people, was weird.

Instead, he checked over his underground apartment of sorts. It wasn't anything special-Sasuke, despite growing up in a rich clan, never really was one to care that much for material possessions. He liked his things to be of good quality, but he didn't go out of his way to stuff his apartment with odds and ends. There was a discarded wrapper in the corner by his sofa, and Sasuke snarled slightly as he threw it away, but other then that…

He continued looking through his house. The living room was opposite the kitchen. It seemed normal and undisturbed. He came back out, ignoring Naruto who was hesitantly fidgeting in the doorway of the living room.

The bathroom had been used. The soap had been left off the dish by the handle and was instead making a mess of the counter. And…Sasuke's nose wrinkled in disdain. They hadn't even flushed…he took a piece of toilet paper and used it on the handle-he'd be cleaning this room tonight.

His bedroom was normal, but the meditation room, on the right side by the bathroom, was a mess. A single bed had been put up, a bunch of blankets, clothes, and other things that any shinobi would need had dumped on it, spilling off onto the floor. A small dresser was set besides it, and there were scuff marks on the floor…

Sasuke was scowling as he left the room, which apparently wasn't his anymore, only to almost run into Naruto, who squeaked slightly as he jumped back. "What are you doing?" Sasuke growled.

"N-nothing!" Naruto said timidly.

"Go do something productive! I have to clean up after these apes!" Sasuke said.

"What?" Naruto asked.

Gods, Sasuke was getting annoyed by this version of Naruto who didn't even sound like him, despite the fact they had the same voice, because the speech patterns and tone was so different, so much more reserved and timid and… "I don't care!" Sasuke said before stomping down the hallway to retrieve some cleaning supplies for his bathroom.

When he finished cleaning the bathroom and came out, he didn't see Naruto, but he could hear clattering noises coming from the kitchen. Naruto was probably making a mess in there, but who knows when Naruto ate last, and it wasn't like Sasuke had asked. He felt a bit guilty, and decided to go work on Naruto's room. As he continued to organize and clean, his temper continued to die down. This was relaxing, this was peaceful. He liked having things clean and neat and organized. Some might call him a bit obsessive compulsive, but on the other hand, people did that anyways.

Sasuke worked on straightening up the bed, having put everything away and having centered everything the way he preferred, when a light knock came at the door. "Yes," Sasuke's statement was short, but didn't come out sounding like he was about to slaughter someone.

"Um…dinner's ready…" Naruto said from the other side.

Sasuke grimaced. He'd figured Naruto had just made a sandwich for himself or something-he wasn't looking forward to eating whatever Naruto had come up with. But it would be rude not to at least eat something. "I'll be right there."

Surprisingly enough, the dinner was rather good. Naruto had apologized for only being able to make tomato soup, since that was all he could come up with considering the ingredients Sasuke had stocked. Sasuke liked tomato soup though, and Naruto's wasn't too bad. Sasuke found himself watching Naruto as he ate-even that was different then what Sasuke was used to for him. He didn't eat even a quarter as much as he normally did, and he ate very politely. Not to mention the fact that Naruto had cooked something other then ramen in the first place. On second thought, that was probably something else that Naruto was required to learn before he left, how to cook for himself, so that made sense.

"I have more food in the refrigerator if you're still hungry," Sasuke said, seeing the slightly forlorn look on Naruto's face.

Naruto shook his head. "I don't need any more food. Matron says I eat too much anyways."

"You have a high metabolism, and you're bigger then you remember being. I don't mind," Sasuke said. He wondered if this Matron was still alive-he was starting to feel a bit tempted to hunt her down.

Naruto thought about this, and got up, and got more soup. "Thank you," he said.

"You cooked it," Sasuke said, "It was rather…tolerable."

Naruto brightened up. "You liked it then?"

Sasuke paused, then jerked his head into a brief nod.

"Great!" Naruto said.

Sasuke helped Naruto clean up and store the remaining leftovers. Naruto still hadn't eaten as much as Sasuke was used to, and Sasuke had the feeling he'd have to work on that-Naruto obviously needed that much food, otherwise he would have gotten fat from excess eating. He'd have to requisition more food from stores.

"Follow me," Sasuke said when they were finished cleaning. Sasuke lead Naruto to what was now his room and opened the door, gesturing for Naruto to go first. "This is your room now."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Wow…it's really nice," he said, "Thank you. Does this mean I'm going to be staying with you? Really?"

"Yes," Sasuke said. He didn't feel like explaining that it was by Orochimaru's request. Nor that he probably would have done it anyway, to keep morons like the ones who'd been here earlier from screwing around with Naruto's head even more then Orochimaru already had, filling it with incorrect stories when Naruto didn't know any better.

"Cool…" Naruto said, wide-eyed.

"Your new clothes are in the dresser, and supplies for your shinobi lessons are on top. Don't cut yourself," Sasuke felt compelled to add. Not that Naruto wouldn't heal up quickly after cutting his hand or whatever, but it seemed like the sort of thing you were supposed to say to a kid, even if the "kid" was technically the same age as you. Of course, this was Naruto, so…better safe then sorry. "Actually, don't touch them too much until I can go over them with you. I don't know how well you can use them, since you've lost your memory."

"All right…" Naruto said, sounding disappointed.

Sasuke resisted a smile. That sounded a bit like Naruto, though he'd be more likely to add something about how awesome he was and how he wouldn't let a mere kunai get the best of him.

"I'm going to go mediate, and then I'm going to bed. I wake up early. I suggest you not stay up more then an hour, because I will expect you to get up a reasonable hour for your training as well. Lord Orochimaru is expecting you with me at training the day after tomorrow, and I want to see where you stand, and how much work I'll have to do with you."

"You're going to be training me…AND Lord Orochimaru?" Naruto said, sounding slightly stunned.

"Yes. So you better work hard," Sasuke said. After all, he wanted Naruto in shape so they could kill Orochimaru. Though he'd calmed down since the debacle at the office, it had only cooled and hardened his determination and hatred, not destroyed it. He would look forward to seeing Orochimaru's smug face when he discovered that his two creations, his "future" body and tool, destroyed him. It would be almost as sweet as when he took revenge for his family.

"I will," Naruto promised. He hesitated a moment then said, "Is…is the Sandaime really dead?"

"Yes," Sasuke wanted to explain the entire situation, but he was positive that Orochimaru, especially now, was listening to everything he said.

"I hope Tsunade and Jiraiya will burn in hell for killing him," Naruto said, his voice rather calm as he spoke.

Sasuke stared at Naruto. "What?"

"I know it isn't nice," Naruto said, ducking his head slightly in embarrassment. His features hardened then, and he looked Sasuke straight in the eyes, "But Sandaime-sama…he was the only person who was ever nice to me, even if it was only because the Hokage loves everyone in his village. His murderers should pay for what they did."

Sasuke's smile was tight. "I'm sure he will be avenged."

Naruto nodded at him, his eyes determined. "I'll train hard, I promise."

"See that you do," was all Sasuke said, and he left.

* * * * * * * *

_End Day Three_

* * * * * * * *

As a note, the chapter is called Day Three because it is Naruto's third day at Otogakure.

~FL


	2. Day Four, Part One

**Disclaimer**: Nope…I still don't own Naruto…but I am currently renting an apartment with my best bud…does that count?

**Dedication**: Well, still dedicated to my awesome friend Tsubasa Kya. Quirkiness and having me run out at around eleven at night for Juicy Juices and all…

**Honorable Mention**: To Loafie, who posted Chapter One for me, when I couldn't get onto this website.

**Warnings**: Pretty much the same as last time. Potential for Sasuke/Naruto, and pretty assured secondary slash pairing, though not THAT many…there's only one I know for sure.

**Note**: Actually, I know this wasn't brought up in a review, but I wanted to mention that from what I understand, Sasuke continues wearing what he did in Otogakure after the fact, though I might be mistaken. However, if other authors get to burn Lee and Naruto's clothes in their fanfics, I'm going after Sasuke's. Yick. Plus I wanted to clarify that Naruto didn't pass anything OTHER then the written exam at an early age. He didn't pass a physical test or a technique test. I just wanted to make sure that was clear.

**Hidden Facets**

_Day Four, Part One_

Naruto woke up early the next morning. He'd never had this much trouble sleeping before a couple of days ago, but then again; he'd never had nightmares quite like this before. They were full of indistinct figures, words, feelings, and the vague knowledge of a person's life, the person he thought he might have become, and it made him more then a bit unnerved. There had been blood and pain, determination and fear, hatred and love.

It took Naruto awhile to break free from his dreams, to bring his mind fully into a conscious state. Even then things seemed a bit surreal-everything did, ever since he'd awakened in the middle of a forest with some stranger talking to him as if they knew each other.

What had followed that odd awakening had been beyond confusing for Naruto. He'd discovered he'd lost most of his memories, that he was actually twelve, not nearing the age of five. He'd been whisked away to a village he'd never seen before, told of the death of the only man he'd ever been able to think of as family, told of the corruption of Konoha, and was now living with someone who seemed familiar and who was apparently a member of his genin squad.

But even that felt wrong. There was something off about the entire thing, some odd look in Orochimaru-sama's eyes. It wasn't hatred or loathing or anything like that-Naruto knew what those looked like. It was something else, and it made Naruto wary. On the other hand, he'd given Naruto proof of what had happened. Pictures of Orochimaru and his team, with the much younger Sandaime as a jounin teacher. Documents and other objects, a picture of the Sandaime's gravesite. All this pointed to what Orochimaru said being true, and so Naruto believed it. But still…there was something wrong.

Sasuke didn't look at him like Orochimaru and Kabuto. He didn't even look at him like a lot of the members of Otogakure, with disgust, amusement, or disdain. He recognized those emotions too. That didn't mean that Naruto felt comfortable with how Sasuke looked at Naruto. He was always looking at Naruto as if he was searching for something, expecting something from Naruto, and wasn't finding it. It was probably the fact that Sasuke had known Naruto a bit from before, and was looking for signs of that person he knew.

It made Naruto feel guilty. Even more uncomfortable then he already was. He talked to Sasuke, because he seemed interested and didn't laugh at him or anything. But Sasuke was always measuring him, judging him, weighing him, and it was making him uncomfortable. He knew it was probably just Sasuke searching for signs of his genin teammate, but…Naruto wasn't that person. He didn't know who that person was, aside from little tidbits and things he'd picked up. For instance, Sasuke was surprised at some of the things Naruto told him. He didn't know things about Naruto that were fact. Did that mean that he and Sasuke weren't that great of friends, or did it mean that Naruto just didn't talk that much? Or was it something else entirely?

And why had he failed the graduation exam twice? Was he really bad at fighting or jutsu or something? But that didn't make sense, because Sasuke had said he was really strong. Though he'd modified it to say that it was mostly through sheer persistence, which Naruto didn't think was really that bad. Wasn't it supposed to be a good thing to keep trying, where others might give up?

He liked the idea of his older self being strong enough to go through any obstacles in his way, and succeeding. But…it made him wonder why…

Naruto shook his head. He wasn't going to think about that. Sasuke said he wanted to test Naruto today, and Naruto wanted to prove to Sasuke that he could be strong too. Then maybe Sasuke would stop looking at Naruto as if he was someone else.

* * * * * * * *

Sasuke was surprised when Naruto was dressed and ready when he got up. Not only had Naruto gotten up, he'd made breakfast. Granted, a simple one, but still breakfast. Then again…it was becoming quite apparent that the Naruto he knew was just like the small root you think to pull up easily while gardening, and find out it isn't so little and that it is instead attached to this enormous tree.

But this was only repeating what was already becoming a worn trail of thought in his mind. He couldn't help it-he hated when he didn't understand something, especially when it was something he'd thought he'd understood.

And then there was Naruto's new uniform, which looked much like Sasuke's except that Naruto tied it more tightly, not as loosely as Sasuke wore his, and he wore his forehead protector around his neck. The entire picture looked wrong in ways that Sasuke couldn't even begin to describe.

"Let's see what you've got," Sasuke said standing up abruptly with his plate still half full. This entire thing was still feeling too bizarre. Being in a training room at least offered more distractions.

Naruto's face fell slightly, but he quietly started picking up dishes on the table to bring them to the sink. "I wasn't that hungry," Sasuke added, and grimaced to himself. It had been so much easier to maintain his normal composure without Naruto around, and it was even worse now. Instead of looking petulant, or childish, Naruto just looked…

This was getting aggravating. "Just rinse off the dishes and leave them. We have a lot to cover."

Sasuke had been more serious then even he thought. Naruto had come up with so many surprising facts about himself, that somehow he'd been expecting, well, more. Naruto had a lot of trouble with simple jutsu. The replacement technique only seemed to work when Naruto was replacing himself with something enormously bigger then he was, or something farther away then what was supposed to be the limit. The normal insubstantial bushin was just plain out, Sasuke remembered that much. He'd tried to teach Naruto, but not for long. The henge, however…it seemed like it was going badly, until Naruto suddenly did…something right, and he managed it perfectly. It seemed too good to be true. So Sasuke had him do it again, and watched closely.

He still couldn't tell what was off, so he asked Naruto to do it once more, and observed with the Sharingan. Naruto did the seal, but with a slight modification that drew much more chakra then it ought to. In fact, it was one that no one was supposed to use, because it drew way more energy then any normal kid would have, and had caused deaths before, so before anyone channeled any chakra through that technique, the teacher had always made them practice the technique and checked their positions several times, to make sure it was perfect. He'd forgotten about it, because it had been easy for him to learn the seals, and it had been easy for him to use the technique, and he generally wasn't one to listen to the teacher when the information didn't seem relevant.

Sasuke had figured out, once he knew about the Kyuubi, it was where Naruto got his abnormally large supply of chakra from, but he had no idea that he had that much trouble managing it. He'd always brushed off Naruto's problems as general incompetence, but this Naruto was bright, he just had way too much chakra to channel, and it seemed like small techniques were something that was beyond his reach, for now.

It was with a sigh that Sasuke taught the kage bushin technique to Naruto. It was such an aggravating technique, since Naruto was able to create so many damn copies of himself. He'd been hoping to avoid it, for at least awhile, but Naruto needed the basics, and apparently this was as close as Sasuke could get. Sasuke had the sinking feeling that he'd be able to manage the Shushin easily as well when he was taught it, as an alternative to the replacement technique.

It felt unfair on several levels to Sasuke that Naruto was able to master such high level techniques with what seemed to be little effort. On one level, he could understand it, but on the other, it felt completely unfair. It wasn't that Sasuke wasn't gifted himself, but Naruto had so much chakra the techniques were practically gift-wrapped to him.

Sasuke wondered if that was how it felt to other people when he himself surpassed them. It was an unpleasant feeling that he didn't like at all, but he'd always looked down at those lesser then him, and sneered when they complained. It wasn't his fault he was naturally superior, and it wasn't Naruto's fault that the Yondaime decided to stick the Kyuubi into Naruto shortly after he was born.

It didn't really make Sasuke feel that much better though. Especially when he remembered how encouraging Naruto was to those that were weaker then him. Did that somehow make Naruto a better person then Sasuke?

Sasuke shook his head. It made him an idiot-that was what it made Naruto. Naruto was given this great source of energy, and squandered it in several ways. He had the potential to be such a strong shinobi, and instead was a measly genin who had a few tricks up his sleeve, but nothing else.

Well, Sasuke would make sure that didn't happen again. Just because Naruto had more brains then he thought, he'd obviously hadn't used them right, because Naruto wasn't the sort of person to fight at less the full capacity, especially when teammates' lives were on the line. There might be a lot of things Sasuke was learning he didn't know about Naruto, but that was one thing he was sure of.

And then when Naruto was back to his old self Sasuke would be getting some answers to some questions that were burning in his gut because the more he observed the younger Naruto trapped in his older self's body, the more he wondered how Naruto went from one to the other. Naruto had dark secrets trapped within him, and Sasuke wanted to know what they were.

* * * * * * * *

Going over fighting techniques with Naruto was some how more of a headache then the jutsu session. When Naruto thought about what he was doing, he was maybe slightly better then the average Academy student, because his body seemed to remember where his mind didn't, but since Naruto was trying so hard to consciously control what he did, he would screw it up. Finally, Sasuke had suggested a match, much to Naruto's horror. He only felt slightly better when Sasuke explained (though not in what might be called the most diplomatic of tones) that he was trying to make Naruto's body react instead of his mind.

Naruto was completely unpredictable. Not how he was before, where he could be predicted through body movements, and predictable in that Sasuke plain predicted him to do something crazy, but just…off. Half the time, Naruto was still over thinking things, and would screw up. A quarter of the time, he would act just like the old Naruto, easily blocked with only a hand. The other quarter of the time, he would dodge in a manner most unlike Naruto normally would. But when he would do which was hard to predict.

It was utterly maddening. He ended up hitting Naruto more then he thought he would, because he would expect him to do one thing, dodge one way or block the other, and he'd do something completely different. He'd warned Naruto that he would probably get banged up a bit, but that it was necessary and that Kabuto would be able to heal anything needed (though Sasuke hoped that the Kyuubi would take care of it instead, and the fact that Sasuke was hoping to rely on a demon instead of Kabuto was telling in and of itself), and Naruto had agreed, but this was getting ridiculous.

Even worse, Naruto had gotten in some good hits of his own. Fighting as inconsistently as Naruto did made it entirely too easy for Naruto to get in a few hits. Not many, but Naruto's strength was as good as ever, and hurt like hell.

On the other hand, it gave Sasuke some good ideas for working on his fighting style. And Naruto's. Anything so unpredictable that it could get past an Uchiha's guard, even when the Sharingan wasn't activated, had to be useful for something.

Naruto had apologized at first, as had Sasuke, though grudgingly, but the more they fought, the more Naruto seemed to get the hang of letting go and letting his body do the work for him. It wasn't a vast improvement, but…the more Sasuke fought, the more he relaxed. Fighting with Naruto had been something he'd apparently missed doing. It was…fun.

Sasuke stopped, a scowl sprouting across his face. Fun. This is what Naruto reduced him to. This was why he'd wanted to leave Konoha. Naruto always managed to distract him, always!

"Um…is something wrong?" Naruto asked, shifting from foot to foot nervously. Sasuke watched, feeling particularly bitter, as a bruise started to fade before it had barely begun to appear on Naruto's cheek.

"You are," Sasuke snapped, and stalked off.

* * * * * * * *

Naruto stared after Sasuke. What…what was wrong? He'd been nervous, but getting hit wasn't really that bad. It stopped hurting rather quickly, and fighting Sasuke had been more fun then he could ever remember having. Trying to dodge, trying to hit Sasuke back, it was like a game. Sasuke had seemed to be enjoying it too before he suddenly stopped, gotten a scary, angry look on his face, and glared at Naruto. When Naruto asked what was wrong, he'd been told he was before Sasuke left him alone in the training room.

He'd thought he'd been doing well too, for this sort of being his first time. Naruto stared at the empty doorway. What was he supposed to do now? He didn't remember how to get back to where he was staying. He wasn't sure if Sasuke wanted him there anymore, and that hurt Naruto a lot more then he thought it would. He was used to people not wanting him, right?

A tear slid down Naruto's cheek, and he pushed it away angrily with his sleeve. He hated crying. Crying was useless, it never changed anything.

"You did well for yourself," Kabuto-san said, appearing from what seemed like nothing.

"Kabuto-san! What…" Naruto felt himself flush. "How long were you there?" he whispered.

"Much of it. Ignore Sasuke, he's a bit of a grumpy personality. He just needs to go off and sulk for awhile, all right? Meanwhile, you can come visit with me. I would enjoy having your company," Kabuto said with a smile.

Kabuto seemed different then earlier. He'd been nice, but where there had been some strange look in his eyes, it was gone now, leaving only someone who made Naruto feel better and reassured him, just like Sandaime-sama had. "You don't mind?" Naruto asked hesitantly.

"Of course not," Kabuto said with a smile, "It would be my pleasure."

**End Day Four Part One**

Yes, it's short, but…cliffhangers, even small ones, are fun. I wanted to end the first chapter much sooner then I did, so I'm afraid I'm taking that out on you here. This is where the chapter wanted to end, and, well, as usual, I ended up listening to what my story and characters wanted. They generally seem to know better then me anyways.

Thank you for reading,

~FL


	3. Day Four, Part Two

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto. No wonder I'm so poor…

**Dedication**: To TK, still. Even when she uses my books to kill bugs (and getting bug guts all over them). :P

**Notes**: From what I understand, there's been a few issues with different schools of thought about how Naruto failed three times and yet supposedly been in Sasuke and Sakura and everyone else's class. Some people say that Naruto just applied to take the exams separately from his graduating class, but if that was the case, Sasuke would have been out of there long ago. Even if Naruto snuck in to do it, after the first time Sasuke probably would have done the same thing. So, the only other thing I can think of is that Naruto was only in their class for the last year. That isn't exactly canon, but I figure with the scenes that show Naruto, Kiba, Shikimaru, and Chouji escaping from detention that they just combined everyone who had detention into the same classroom. As for the scenes that show Naruto just in everyday classes with them, well-I can't really fit them in.

**Hidden Facets**

_Day Four, Part Two_

Sasuke stomped through the hallways, trying to contain the anger racing through his veins. There were a few shinobi out, but they hurried out of his way. He finally stopped in an out of the way corridor and slammed his fist into the wall besides him. "Damn it," he growled, "How does Naruto always manage to screw me up like this?"

Sasuke knew why, though. Naruto was the only one who was ever able to really get under his skin. His classmates, on the whole, left him alone. Sure, the fangirls were a pain in the ass, but they weren't exactly that hard escape from since most of them certainly weren't prime shinobi material. Even when Sakura was put on his team, it was annoying, but it was just a small annoyance, no problem. Teachers, instructors, the stupid woman who stopped by his house every week to "make sure he was coping," and reassure him that, "if you ever need to talk, dear, you know where to find me," and everyone else-he was able to manage to keep them at a distance.

And that was how he wanted it. The night he'd lost his family, when his brother, his own brother murdered their clan in their own homes, their own district, where they were the most powerful, most invulnerable, it had been the night where Sasuke felt most of him died along with them. He'd remained only to avenge their deaths. He'd said he'd planned on rebuilding the Uchiha clan, but…he always had this feeling he wouldn't really live through killing his brother.

So he'd made sure he had no connections left. If he had no connections, he'd never have to feel like he had that night, because he'd have nothing to loose. He'd be able to fully dedicate himself to avenging his family, without worrying about things like friends.

Sasuke had thought it was going pretty well, too. Granted, ever since the Uchiha massacre, pretty much no one was allowed to become a genin ahead of their time, because they thought it screwed people up, like it had screwed his brother up. So he'd bid his time, making sure he remained the strongest in the class, and that he kept training. He hated that he was kept from moving forward, but he'd figured that would just give him more time to try and figure out how to activate his Sharingan.

Except…he'd never managed to activate it. Not until…

Sasuke shook his head. Why did everything come back to Naruto? He remembered hearing about Naruto. Adults were always talking about that freak, that brat, though it wasn't until years later that Sasuke had a face to match the name. He'd been about…going on nine. He was taking a break, resting against a tree, when a streak of orange topped by yellow had gone by, laughing his head off. Hyuuga were chasing after him, all yelling and screaming his name. It had been such a surprise to him, to see the normally calm Hyuuga clan screaming their heads off.

Then again, it had been a surprise when he'd gone to see what all the commotion was about, and had discovered that he'd somehow managed to paint the entire Hyuuga compound orange-walls, houses, sidewalks, everything.

He still wondered to this day how Naruto had managed to pull that prank off. It had amused him.

So he'd been curious, and started listening more closely when Naruto's name was brought up. He'd learned Naruto was an orphan, like him. That he'd gone into school when he was five, before they'd made the rule preventing early admission. And that he was an idiot.

It had bothered him. How could this boy who'd never even had a family be so happy all the time? Every time Sasuke had noticed him, he was smiling about something or laughing about it.

The more Sasuke learned about him, the more it pissed him off. It wasn't fair that Naruto could be so happy, without any family. Didn't he know he wasn't supposed to act like that? Maybe it was because he'd never had a family to begin with, to know what having one was like before loosing it.

It wasn't right that Naruto was happy. Orphans aren't happy people. The idiot.

So Sasuke stopped listening for news, or keeping an eye out for him at school or in town. It was stupid anyways. Though it was kind of hard not to notice all the pranks he pulled. All too often, Sasuke had had a hard time from smiling at some of them. This had annoyed him even more. Bad enough Naruto was happy about things, why'd he have to make Sasuke smile too?

The next year, he was surprised to notice Naruto was still at school. Not that they had the same class or anything, but Naruto wasn't exactly low key, and Sasuke couldn't help but notice that even though Naruto had been supposed graduate that year, he hadn't. He'd been surprised, since anyone who could pull off painting the Hyuuga district orange out to be able to pull off the graduation exam.

Sasuke didn't investigate though, because his interest in Naruto had been stupid anyways. He'd already decided not to associate with anyone, and his interest in Naruto was a step in the wrong direction.

So another year went by, and Sasuke went on with his life, grateful that he only had another year until he could graduate. The first day of his last year of school had started off normally, avoiding sitting by any fan girls and so on. Until the new teacher, Umino-sensei, decided to call roll.

* * * * * * * *

Sasuke said "Present," in his normal tone of voice, already bored, when the teacher had then called, "Uzumaki, Naruto."

The class, which had been together for four years, buzzed. There hadn't been any new students in the class when they'd arrived. Sasuke had seen the teacher's eyebrow twitch with annoyance even as he sighed. "Uzumaki? Naruto, if you don't show up by the time I count to ten…"

Naruto had arrived just as Umino reached ten. "Hi Iruka-sensei!" he'd said cheerfully as he sauntered in, just as if he was coming in with plenty of time to spare.

That was a bit familiar. Then again, teachers tended to stay with whichever grade they taught, so if Naruto had already failed twice, then he had probably already had Umino a couple times at least. The teacher twitched, and suddenly he looked many times bigger then Naruto-not literally, it was just the impression he gave off as he towered over the short boy. "WHY ARE YOU LATE TO THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS, UZUMAKI?!"

Naruto just rubbed the back of his head. "Well, my alarm clock broke, and I tripped over a few things when I was rushing around trying to get ready. You know how it goes, right Iruka-sensei?"

Outside, the pounding of feet threw the corridors could be heard coming towards their room. Umino groaned as he drew his hand over his eyes. "Naruto, what did you do now?" he asked.

"Me? I didn't do anything!" Naruto protested, his face practically shining with innocence.

"Doubt that Naruto," Kiba said, a smug look on his face, "The day you're not guilty of something is the day I find out Akamaru is a girl. Which he isn't," he tacked on at his dog's growl.

Before Naruto could respond, a teacher Sasuke didn't recognize burst into the room. "You!" he shouted, pointing at Naruto, "Detention! And you will be cleaning the school from top to bottom. Again!"

"What did he do?" Umino's voice sounded defeated.

The man looked around the room and Sasuke could tell what he was thinking-he had already noticed it. The room was full of children who were paying far more attention then they ever might when class was actually being taught. "I'll…tell you later."

"Thank you," Umino said, "Naruto, get in your seat. We'll discuss this later."

"How can I be accused when I don't even know what I supposedly did?" Naruto said as he headed towards a seat.

"Just sit down and be quiet," Umino said.

Naruto did-right by Sasuke. "You can't sit here!" Sasuke hissed at the idiot.

"Well, you're in my seat," Naruto pointed out, "If you want to be picky about it."

Did Naruto have an assigned seat or something? No matter-Sasuke had been here first, and until a teacher made him move, he wasn't moving. "Get away from me!"

"Whatever," Naruto said as he proceeded to lay his head on his arms as if he was about to go to sleep, "Bastard."

He seemed to go to sleep instantly. Sasuke experimentally kicked at him-nothing. Great. An idiot who managed to fail the genin exam twice was sitting right by him and breaking the unspoken rule that no one sits beside him. Just great…

* * * * * * * *

That had been the beginning of this odd alternate reality. He'd been managing to live in his own world ever since his family died, but from the first instant Naruto noticed his existence Naruto seemed to make a special effort to get on Sasuke's nerves. Most of the time Naruto ended up sitting by Sasuke (a major reason for this was that Sasuke managed to keep everyone sitting by him, and since Naruto was generally late, the seats by Sasuke where generally the only open ones) and he was always challenging Sasuke or talking to him or doing something to annoy Sasuke.

That's why, even though he'd not been exactly thrilled about the fact that Naruto was on his team (not to mention one of his most particularly annoying fangirls) he wasn't really surprised. It just figured.

And things went down from there. Naruto managed to insinuate himself into Sasuke's life with an ease that Sasuke hated. Sasuke even found himself going on a team mission to discover what lay under his teacher's mask. He would have never done that before he met Naruto. And as Sasuke found himself softening, allowing himself to sometimes forget about his mission, to think of other things, he felt like he was loosing all control of his life.

And-for awhile it hadn't been too bad. For the first time in years, Sasuke had started to enjoy his life.

Until the Chunin exam. Orochimaru had proven to him how weak he'd become. So he'd become stronger, training with Kakashi. And then…and then Gaara had defeated him. And Naruto, Naruto of all people managed to defeat Gaara, when Sasuke hadn't been able to. How had he allowed himself to become so weak that Naruto managed to defeat someone where Sasuke couldn't?

It didn't help when shortly after that, Itachi returned. And he was after Naruto. Why Naruto? Why had he just thrown Sasuke away like he was nothing to go after Naruto? He knew now, because of information he'd learned from Orochimaru, but then it had burned in him. It was when he woke up that he knew that something had to change. Orochimaru's minions had come at the perfect time for him. Sasuke knew he'd allowed himself to become weak, hanging around with his team mates and doing frivolous things. Konoha was weakening him-he needed to go some place where he could concentrate solely his training, and anywhere Naruto was, he wouldn't be able to. Naruto was too good at screwing up Sasuke's emotional state, and Sasuke didn't know why. He just knew he had to get away from Naruto, before he lost all will to escape.

When Naruto caught up to him, in the Valley of the End…things got out of hand. He was furious at Naruto for screwing up his life, for making it come to this, for being so strong, for making him so weak. It just escalated and grew exponentially, until Sasuke found himself almost killing Naruto. He'd been grateful that Naruto had survived, because he didn't want to be like Itachi. He'd stumbled away then, unable to face what he'd done and not wanting to chance it happening again, just wanting to get back to what he knew, being emotionally distant and focused. And he had been…until Naruto showed up.

And somehow, Naruto managed to insinuate himself into Sasuke's life again. As always, it was by some random, screwy bit of fate that seemed determined to throw them together. And Naruto wasn't affecting Sasuke like he normally did. At least, it hadn't, until they were fighting against each other, and it felt like the old Naruto was back again. Though, the constant pondering of how this boy turned into his teammate was almost as bad.

Sasuke sighed as he leaned against the wall. He wanted to be done with this. He never thought he'd be even thinking of this, but it would have been easier if Naruto had busted in here his normal self and kidnapped Sasuke back to Konoha. At least he wouldn't have to think as much. Wonder as much. He wanted things back to normal, or some type of normalcy.

Damn. Naruto was probably still back at the training room, wondering what he'd done wrong and fretting and that was if someone else hadn't come in and decided to hassle him. This sucked. He didn't want to be responsible for Naruto. Naruto was supposed to be his rival, not some kid he had to take care of.

Sasuke sighed again as he pushed off from the wall and started walking towards the training room. He only had a couple of simple goals in life. Why did his life have to be so complicated?

It took Sasuke about eight minutes to reach the training room again, only to find it empty. "Shit," Sasuke muttered. Either Naruto had left, or someone had come in and taken him somewhere. He wasn't sure which would be worse.

Times like this it would be handy to handy to have dog summons like Kakashi to search for people's scent. It wasn't like tracking in the forest, where you could search for signs of passage and such. And it didn't help that Orochimaru had purposely designed his village to be a maze of sorts to confuse any possible invaders. If Naruto had left on his own free will, he could be anywhere.

It would help if he could have more people he could trust to search…wait…he knew the kage bushin now-he could create a couple of clones, and have them go off and search. He could send one along the route he'd taken Naruto from their rooms to the training room, if by some miracle Naruto's sense of direction was better then he thought, and Naruto had headed that way. If the clone didn't find Naruto along the route or their rooms, then he could go search other places. He could send another to search the corridors and…maybe one to go to Kabuto's rooms, because of everyone here at this village, Kabuto was the one who most seemed to take a sadistic joy with screwing around with people's heads. He would be the one to go to Kabuto's, since Kabuto required the most power, and he'd send the clones off the other two ways. If something happened and they dispelled, he'd at least have an idea of what was going on.

A few seconds later, there were three Sasuke's there. A minute later, there were none.

Kabuto's rooms were near the medical area, where the labs and the treatment rooms were located. Even though they resembled the rest of the village, they always felt…off to him. It was partially because Sasuke had seen some of the disgusting experiments that were performed here. Maybe it was the too strong smell of cleaning supplies, from all of the clean up that had to be done to get the smell of blood out of the place.

Sasuke's mouth tightened as he heard Naruto's voice come from Kabuto's rooms. He sped up slightly and opened the door. Naruto was sitting on a chair across from Kabuto, eating a sandwich as Kabuto talked about some story of his from when he was a genin.

"Kabuto," Sasuke bit out. His mouth curled slightly as he stared at the sandwich Naruto was eating. He didn't think Kabuto would do anything to Naruto's food, but he still didn't like Naruto eating anything Kabuto gave him. "Naruto, we need to get going."

Naruto looked up at him nervously, the interested expression that had been on his face while Kabuto talked slowly fading away to be replaced by nervousness and dread.

"Now now, Sasuke-kun, don't be so grumpy. It's not Naruto's fault that you had a childish temper tantrum. You really should learn to control yourself," Kabuto admonished.

Sasuke glared at Kabuto even as he said, "Naruto, come." He heard the plate being set down, and Naruto's light footsteps as he walked away from his seat towards Sasuke.

"You stay away from Naruto. I don't want you near him," Sasuke commanded.

Kabuto's expression briefly turned dark. "You can't keep him from me forever. You don't have authority over me. I answer only to Orochimaru."

"I don't care. Stay away from him," Sasuke repeated.

"My my-are you jealous, little Sasuke? You should do a better job of watching him then," Kabuto said, his expression lightening. Gods, he hated Kabuto, hated how he acted so cheerful while he was really this insane bastard. The things he'd seen Kabuto do…

"Stay away," Sasuke said, one more time as he grabbed Naruto's hand and left, pulling Naruto after him.

"Sorry…" Naruto apologized quietly.

"I shouldn't have left you alone," Sasuke said, since he shouldn't have, "But if something happens, you stay away from him, do you hear me? If he wants to talk to you, get away as quickly as possible and find me. If he tries to do something to you, anything, scream your head off. That guy is a psychotic bastard."

"O-okay," Naruto's voice trembled only slightly.

"Now, we're going back to the training room, and I want you to pay attention to how to get back to our living quarters. You need to memorize it, in case I have to leave or something. If I'm not there, you should be in our rooms," Sasuke said.

"You're…you're acting like there are people around here that would hurt me…" Naruto said.

Sasuke hesitated. He was restrained from saying what he wanted to say, but… "Naruto-the people around here will only want to use you as a tool for their goals." That was safe enough, and close enough to the truth without mentioning forbidden topics.

"You don't?" Naruto asked after a moment of silence.

Sasuke's steps slowed down. "I…I don't want you hurt," Sasuke admitted finally.

"Why?" Naruto asked, "I'm not really your friend-I'm not the Naruto you knew. Why would you care about me?"

This was exactly what Sasuke had wanted to avoid when he left Konoha-thinking about things like this! "Do I have to have a reason?"

"No…" Naruto admitted, "It's just…I've never had anyone besides the Sandaime that really cared, and I was wondering why you did."

"I don't know," Sasuke said, "You're Naruto, and you're not supposed to die. You're supposed to live, and you're supposed to be happy. It's how it has always been." Sasuke didn't know any way how to explain it other then that. Naruto was, or had been one of the few constants in his life, always there, and always happy. It was just how the world worked.

"Oh," Naruto said. His fingers tightened for the first time around Sasuke's, and Sasuke realized they were still holding hands. It was awkward, especially since it wasn't necessary any longer, but he couldn't just let go now, "All right."

**End Day Four, Part Two**

What is it about kids that make you tell them things you never tell other people? Anyways, here's a chapter that got even more into Sasuke's thought process. Hope it was illuminating.

~FL


	4. Day 5

**Disclaimer**: Does anyone else feel these are redundant? I mean, doing a couple times is one thing, but for every chapter? I think I'm going to do a blanket disclaimer for this story. For however many chapters I write on this story, I declare that in none of them will my status of NOT being the owner of Naruto change. I make no claim to the characters other then the ones I make up, and this is not something I'm making a profit of, no matter how much I wish I could make a bit of money off of this. I repeat, this goes for the REST of this story.

**Dedication**: To TK. We might have some different tastes when it comes to certain things, but for all that, we're still sisters at heart.

**Notes**: I know it might seem a bit slow, going day by day, or even half days, but once I have the situation set up, things will speed up a bit. So just hang with me until then! After all, I have to hang in there until I get to the parts I really want to write, so I'm in the same boat as ya'll.

**Hidden Facets**

_Day Five_

Naruto's dreams remained disturbing, but he woke up lighthearted for all of that. Even though Sasuke continued to seem as if he were expecting Naruto to act different, Naruto was still happy that he had had such a good friend, albeit it a grumpy one, in Sasuke before he'd lost his memory. He continued smiling, even as he got dressed in his uniform and went to the kitchen to make breakfast. It wasn't anything really special (Naruto had been taught how to cook, not how to make complicated things) just egg in the holes, but Naruto enjoyed doing, because he was making food for a friend.

He'd made food for Sasuke before, of course, but this time was different. This time, he knew Sasuke really cared about him, even if it was an older him, and Naruto wanted to do something in return, even if it was only a small breakfast.

When Sasuke came in, he paused and said, "You don't have to keep cooking for me, you know. It's not required for you to live here or anything."

"You're letting me stay here, I ought to contribute somehow," Naruto said.

Sasuke seemed to consider that for a bit as he ate. Finally, he said. "If you want to cook, that's all right, but you are not required to do contribute anything in particular. When you're in Otogakure, you work for Orochimaru, and he decides what it is your job to contribute. For now, your job is to train and become stronger-that is all that is required of you."

"What's your job?" Naruto asked.

"Mine is to train as well, and whatever else Orochimaru requires of me," Sasuke replied.

"What kind of things does he have you do?" Naruto questioned.

"Various things," Sasuke said shortly. He didn't seem to want to elaborate, and Naruto wondered if he didn't like working for Orochimaru. He already seemed to hate Kabuto, who seemed to be Orochimaru's right hand man, from things he had overheard during his first couple of days here, and he didn't really sound that happy to be working for Orochimaru either. Naruto would just have to wait and watch-that was probably the safest thing to do. If Sasuke didn't trust people here, and since he seemed to want to protect Naruto, then Naruto would follow his lead and trust no one but Sasuke. After all, while Orochimaru talked all nice to him and everything, but he hadn't done anything that really proved he cared. Sasuke might not always be nice, but he seemed to do his best to make sure Naruto was taken care of, no matter how grumpy about it he was, and that was what counted to Naruto. He'd even come after him and tried to protect him from Kabuto when Naruto hadn't even known he was in danger. He wondered what kind of things Kabuto had done, to make Sasuke so worried though. Thinking about it kind of crept him out, since he didn't know.

"So what are we doing today?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke's eyebrows tightened. "Orochimaru wants us to report for training. Unless he states otherwise, we are to do so every day."

"Oh," Naruto said quietly. He wondered what kind of training he'd be doing, and what Orochimaru would want to teach him. That kept him occupied and quiet through the rest of breakfast and to the training center, which Sasuke had insisted he led the way to, as a sort of test. They arrived there promptly at seven.

They went to the same room they'd used last time. Orochimaru was leaning against the wall, a slight smirk on his face. "Why don't you two spar for a bit, Orochimaru suggested, "No Jutsu. For the first three hours minimum, that will be what you do every day to start off. I won't be here for the sparring. After that, you'll be spending three hours working on whatever I had you working on the previous day. You may have a thirty minute break to eat and take care of anything else, and then I will come and work with you for however long I decide to. If there is still time after that, I'll leave you alone to work on whatever you feel like you need to review. You're not to leave here until it's after nine. This schedule will remain in place until I say otherwise. Understood?"

Naruto's shoulders slumped a bit. This felt a bit like the schedule he'd had at the orphanage, only there was less school work and more learning to fight and such. Well, he'd survived it before; he should be able to survive it again.

"Yes sir," Sasuke said in response to Orochimaru's question.

"Yes sir," Naruto added on hastily, realizing he was supposed to answer too.

"Good. I'll leave you two to it, then," Orochimaru said.

* * * * * * * *

Sasuke cracked his fingers. His training schedule was a bit heavier, but it seemed like he wouldn't have to do extra tasks like he had before and he was eager to do anything that helped him become stronger anyways. He hoped it wasn't too hard on Naruto, but he was resilient, or at least, his old body was. "Work out anything that is stiff," Sasuke commanded, as he rotated first his right arm, then his left.

"Okay," Sasuke had shown Naruto how to do that yesterday, and Sasuke watched with critical eyes as Naruto went through the process.

He nodded with satisfaction then said, "Ready?" as he launched himself at Naruto.

Naruto threw himself to the side and rolled, coming up with a reasonable rate of recovery. Sasuke said shortly, "Good," and made his next move.

Naruto slowly improved, and Sasuke once again found himself slowing relaxing. It annoyed him, as it had yesterday, but Sasuke held onto his temper this time. He would just have to work through Naruto's aggravating ability to make him relax and not focus on what he needed to. He just had to remember that this was good training for fighting Itachi-actually, for that matter, Orochimaru as well. It wasn't like Sasuke had been planning on sticking around to let his body be taken over anyways-Naruto's coming just sped up his plans a bit. He would have to wait until Naruto got stronger, or regained his memory, but he would just bid his time until then.

The three hours passed quickly. They'd both managed to avoid serious injury, just a few bruises and such, which passed very quickly for Naruto. Sasuke decided to spend the next three hours working on what they'd covered the day before. Once Sasuke made sure that Naruto had everything from yesterday down, Sasuke was left to figure out what else to do. He still had most of the three hours left.

Oh well. He could always steal a page from Kakashi's book. He suddenly had more sympathy for Kakashi then he had before. Deciding what to teach someone was a rather large headache. What will they need to know? What did you need to teach them and in what order, because that teaching might just save their lives? And what little thing might you forget, that seems like something small for you, but it actually something crucial, even if appearing to be unimportant. "Why don't we work on tree walking?" Sasuke suggested.

"Walking on trees?" Naruto asked, looking around as if expecting a tree to pop out somewhere.

"It doesn't actually have to be on a tree," Sasuke said. He thought for a moment, and decided to give a demonstration. He went into a handstand and tossed himself up in the air, feet going towards the ceiling. The timing had to be exact, and…there! Sasuke was standing on the ceiling on the training room, looking down at a gaping Naruto.

Sasuke repressed a smirk and ignored the small surge of pride that came over him from managing to impress his rival. After all, if Naruto was actually around, he'd probably just roll his eyes and yell something like "Stupid bastard who likes to show-off, I can do that to!" and attempt to do the same thing. Instead he walked towards the wall and walked down it, returning to Naruto the admittedly slower way, but also the more impressive way. Maybe Kakashi had had a worse influence him then he thought, but it did manage to grab Naruto's attention very well.

"How'd you do that?!" Naruto burst out as Sasuke returned.

"It's called tree walking, because there are a lot of trees around Konoha and Konoha shinobi use that method to get around through the trees instead of the ground. It gives you several advantages. You can get a better vantage point to see what's going on below you, it's a much quieter method of travel, you can move more quickly, and so on. It also helps you learn how to control your chakra better, because you have to channel energy to your feet in a particular way. You knew how to do this before you lost your memory, so what I want you to do is run at the wall and try and see how far you can make it up. If you don't think about it, you might be able to let your body take over and do it, like when you're fighting," Sasuke explained.

Naruto gulped. "Run…at the wall?" he asked.

"It's not as tall as the tree you learned to walk up on the first time," Sasuke said. That was a bit of a change from the first time-Naruto had pretty much just charged-he didn't wait to ask questions.

Naruto's hand tightened. "Okay." His voice was mostly steady. He took a deep breath and ran at the wall. He managed to take about three steps (Sasuke wasn't sure if it was the adrenaline and will power, or the proper method) and fell flat on his back.

"I think we'll need to work on your landings as well," Sasuke said dryly, and got to work.

By the time they were supposed to break for lunch, Naruto was able to run up to the ceiling, but he couldn't yet walk. Like with his sparring, it seemed to work best when Naruto didn't have a chance to understand what he was doing. He'd also gotten Naruto to the point where he wasn't crash landing every time he didn't make it up, which, while it wasn't as amusing as seeing Naruto fall, did help the over all training process. Lunch was brought by a couple of shinobi Sasuke didn't remember the name of but knew they were two of the weakest shinobi on the base (thus why they were assigned to bring food.)

Lunch was pretty quiet-probably because Naruto was recovering from their morning. It passed quickly unfortunately-Orochimaru appeared just as they were finishing their food. Sasuke wished there was some way of training and getting stronger that didn't involve having to deal with him, but there wasn't, so…

Orochimaru split into two. "Sasuke, come with me," the one on the left ordered, "We're going to continue to work on your sword training."

"Naruto, you're with me," the other one said, "I'm going to test you, to see where you are, and we'll go from there."

Sasuke turned his head to watch as the other Orochimaru lead Naruto away into another training room. "Growing attached?" Orochimaru said, his face looking a bit smug.

"Just curious as to what you're planning on teaching him," Sasuke managed to keep his voice calm. He was, after all. He was worried about what Orochimaru was going to be teaching him, whether it would be more lies or something else. Or would he be teaching Naruto new jutsu, large ones that Naruto would be able to easily do with his large chakra supply. Well, if he did, then Sasuke would just copy them for himself. Just because he wanted Naruto to get stronger didn't mean that Sasuke was going to let Naruto get ahead of him because he had a larger chakra supply.

"I have a lot of interesting ideas for where to take Naruto's training," the look on Orochimaru's face was unsettling with its satisfaction and greed, "But don't worry, I'm not forgetting you," he added as he rushed at Sasuke, sword drawn.

They fell into a furious sword fight, with Orochimaru periodically (much more often then Sasuke would have preferred) stopping his sword right before a killing strike. Time seemed to move in a blur, and when Orochimaru stopped, Sasuke stood there, panting, trying to bring his mind back up to speed. Training with Orochimaru was difficult-he was forced to move at speeds he'd never had to before just to begin to keep up. He was growing stronger though, and that was worth the effort. He would kill Itachi when he fought him next, he would.

"That was marginally better then before," Orochimaru stated, "Maybe you'll be able to match up to your older brother yet."

Sasuke snarled. Orochimaru seemed to love comparing Sasuke to Itachi, something that pissed him off every time. It was probably why Orochimaru did it. Orochimaru just smirked. "Don't be late tomorrow," was all he said before he disappeared.

Sasuke glanced up at the clock. They'd been fighting for a solid eight and a half hours, approximately, because it was already nine. Sasuke was grateful, once again, for Kakashi's training before the final part of the Chunin exam. It might not have gotten him to the point he was able to beat Gaara, but it did allow him to keep up with long hours of training with Orochimaru. Somehow, however, Sasuke didn't think Kakashi would appreciate Sasuke thinking that. No matter.

Sasuke went to find Naruto, only to encounter him about to walk into the door of this training room. He looked exhausted. "Everything go all right?" Sasuke asked, "No problems?"

Naruto glanced up from the floor he'd been studying. He looked sad-worn out more then just physically. "Orochimaru told me shinobi are just tools. That they're supposed to just obey orders, and not think for themselves. Is…is that true?" Naruto's voice shook slightly.

Sasuke remembered Naruto making his vow not to be a tool, during the Wave mission. How he swore to make his own way of being a shinobi. "In some ways, that's true Naruto. In other ways, it isn't." Sasuke moved past Naruto, "Come."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked as he followed Sasuke, "I don't want to just be someone's tool."

"Shinobi work for their villages. They get paid to do so. It's their job. However, shinobi were trained to break rules, to cheat. A shinobi who can't find their way around not doing something they don't want to do is worthless. It might take time, but there is always another option. You just have to continually choose the one you think best," Sasuke stated.

"Oh…" Naruto trailed off, and they walked for silence for a minute. "Sasuke?" Naruto's voice was even more hesitant then before, "Is it…is it really weak? To care about people?"

Why did Sasuke have to be the one to field these questions? "I think it does both," Sasuke said after a moment, "It makes you weaker and stronger at the same time."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"If you care about someone…really care about them, you'll do whatever it takes to protect them," Sasuke said slowly, "If you know you're fighting for that special person, you'll fight harder then ever for them."

"Isn't that a good thing then?" Naruto's question made Sasuke wince slightly.

"It also makes you weak," he added, "if you lose…if you lose the people you care about, if you're not strong enough to protect them…" Sasuke had to shake away images of the Uchiha clan lying scattered around their compound, of his mother, his father, "If you lose them, you become weaker then you can imagine." Sasuke's voice was cold as he spoke the last sentence.

"Oh…" Naruto repeated his earlier statement, his voice soft.

"It's like anything else in life," Sasuke added, "It's a gamble. You have to decide how much you're willing to risk. If the pain of loosing those you care about is worth caring for them in the first place."

"But…but can't you just get stronger? Strong enough to protect them, to make sure they're safe?" Naruto questioned.

"No one can be everywhere all the time," Sasuke replied, "And there is always someone stronger then you-always."

Naruto didn't speak then, as he considered what Sasuke said. And Sasuke tried to forget about his cheerful teammate, who would be yelling at him to not be so stupid, that you kept trying or die in the attempt, and who he might never hear again.

No…the pain wasn't worth it…at least before, he wouldn't know what he'd lost.

**End of Day Five**

As always, thanks for reading.

~FL


	5. Day SixtyFour

**Dedication**: To TK, the person who can consistently keep me up much later then any other person I know.

**Notes**: Well, things are finally moving along. Thank goodness…

**Hidden Facets**

_Day Sixty-Seven_

The past couple of months had been aggravating for Sasuke. Things had settled down into a routine at least, after Orochimaru had imposed a schedule on Sasuke and Naruto for training. And continued training meant that Sasuke had grown stronger.

On the other hand, he felt like he was moving at a snail's pace compared to Naruto. Oh, he knew a lot of it had just been Naruto relearning things, but it was still aggravating to see a visible improvement in Naruto every single day when Sasuke felt like he wasn't learning much at all.

And being around Naruto was just hard all around. While someone might think that Sasuke would grow used to him since he was around all the time, and he did, to a certain extent, on the whole Sasuke couldn't stop comparing the Naruto he knew, and the Naruto he was getting to know. He had figured out early on that there were a lot of questions he'd want to find out about Naruto, if he ever had the opportunity again. And granted, he'd also found a lot of similarities in the underlying nature of both Narutos. Actually, that was part of the problem he was having. He could just be angry at Naruto if it turned out Naruto was actually this completely different person with different motivations and reasoning and so on, and hiding himself for some demented reason (like Kabuto was) but Naruto was still a genuinely nice person. He wasn't interested in pranks (that Sasuke noticed), he didn't seem to care for the color orange (Naruto never wore the jumpsuit he'd come in-expressed no interest in it at all, really), had not gone into fits of excitement when Sasuke had gotten some cup ramen for them (which had been really eerie), but he still was annoyingly optimistic, a hard worker, and coming in with off the wall applications with the things he was taught.

So why had Naruto hidden the fact that he doesn't like the clothes he wore, wasn't particularly fond of ramen, and was not an idiot? When Naruto would ask him this or that question about learning, Naruto understood what he was saying. In fact, he would draw conclusions that Sasuke would have never imagined him able to draw. What reason would Naruto have for making himself out to be less then he was? It just didn't make sense. And yes, Naruto did have the Kyuubi stuck in him, and he'd noticed that people on the whole didn't like Naruto that much, probably because of that, but wouldn't they be happy if he was stronger? Wouldn't that make Naruto more of an asset to the village? Naruto wanted people to like him-wouldn't it make people like him more to have him be not so much of a prankster idiot?

Sasuke sighed and continued working on his swordsmanship. He was a good swordsman now. It was a weapon he enjoyed, and he was able to learn it quickly thanks to his Sharingan. But he wanted to be able to actually beat Orochimaru in a duel, and somehow, no matter how much better he got, he had yet to do so. He knew Orochimaru was a Sannin, but he felt like he should be improving more quickly. Yes, he'd learned a lot of jutsu he'd never learned before since coming to Otogakure. Yes, he'd become an excellent swordsman. But he needed more. He needed some proof that the next time he fought Itachi would be the last. That he wouldn't have to lay there defeated on the ground, watching his brother's back as he walked away, his brother's way of saying he was too pathetic to even bother with, too pathetic to have saved his own family.

And Orochimaru wasn't even here for him to practice against. Apparently, he had something he wanted to try with Naruto, and he wanted to concentrate on that. Sasuke wasn't too annoyed about being left alone because Orochimaru would sometimes do that, concentrating on one or the other of them. He was annoyed that he had no one to practice on. He liked the fighting, he liked being able to be wholly concentrate on the…

Suddenly, a wave of pure, unadulterated rage swept through the room. It said that this person, this BEING, had a mission to kill, to destroy, to annihilate the world and laugh as it fell to pieces around it.

Sasuke had felt something like that before. He ran towards it, rushing through corridors pushing past people streaming away or bound in place, unable to move from fear. Where was Naruto? What had happened? Why had the Kyuubi been called forth? Had Orochimaru been trying to experiment with it? Sasuke grew more and more frustrated as he wound through the maze of corridors coming into a section he'd never been in before. He had to dodge traps and double back when he can to a dead end. He continued to close in at least and when he felt like he was right on top of it…it died down. His pace quickened and seconds later he came across Orochimaru who was staring through a one way observation window, the look on his face full of want, of greed.

Sasuke wanted to punch his face in. But he wouldn't be able to, not yet anyways, he wasn't strong enough. Right now, he just wanted to check on Naruto. He ignored Orochimaru, swung open the door, and hurried through the door. He stopped dead in his tracks.

He was standing in blood and gore. The entire room was splashed with it. Bits were strewn here and there, but none larger then the size of a small coin. And in the middle of it, a wide-eyed, panting Naruto stood, his hands still spread as if he had claws at the ends of his hands which dripped with blood. He was trembling, a queer sound coming from his throat. Sasuke wondered who Orochimaru had decided to sacrifice to Kyuubi, but doubted he really cared that much. The only person worth anything in this entire village was Naruto.

Naruto, who had lost his memories of fights and bloodshed, had never seen anything like this before. Sasuke's lips curled slightly in anger, and his hands clenched at his sides. Naruto was covered in blood and bits of flesh-his own, his enemies, Sasuke didn't know. His clothes were barely hanging on him. And his eyes…his eyes looked horrified. They stared unblinkingly at the destruction around him and Sasuke wished he could send Orochimaru into the deepest depths to hell. Naruto wasn't ready to see anything like this, let alone have been made to be the cause of it.

"Sasuke," even Orochimaru's voice dripped with satisfaction, "I think Naruto needs to go clean up. Why don't you go do that? I'll let you two off training early for the day."

Sasuke's fingernails dug further into his palm, but Orochimaru's voice seemed to have made Naruto aware of more then just the blood around him. His wild eyes searched desperately and locked onto Sasuke's. He scrambled back, falling and scuttling backwards. "I didn't mean to!" he cried desperately, "I didn't mean to I didn't mean to I didn't mean to!"

Sasuke had to work to soften his face. Thoughts of Orochimaru looking like this room were too prevalent, but he managed to focus his thoughts of what was important right now. "I know you didn't," Sasuke said, lowering his voice and trying to sound understanding and nice. Sasuke thought he sounded like an idiot and nothing like he ought to to be actually reassuring, but he wasn't really good at these sorts of things, "I know. It's okay. Let's get you home, away from all the blood."

It was like talking to some wild animal. Naruto had backed into a wall, and was trembling harder then ever. And he just kept repeating "I didn't mean too," over and over and over. It was horrible. And the more Sasuke tried to reassure him, the more Naruto seemed to tremble and the quicker and louder he spoke as if he were trying to block out Sasuke's voice. His hands covered his ears and he sobbed the words out faster and faster, his eyes screwed up to keep himself from seeing anything.

Okay, this wasn't working. He could knock Naruto unconscious…no, Naruto's metabolism recovered too quickly for that to be an effective option. Maybe it would help him to just get Naruto somewhere else. Sasuke walked over and stared down at him for a moment, before reaching down and hitting a pressure point. He then picked him up, slung him over his shoulder, and made the signs to shushin.

* * * * * * * *

Sasuke had aimed for the bathroom and the instant he got there he set Naruto down in the tub. Naruto hadn't yet regained consciousness so Sasuke gingerly took the bloodied pieces of clothing off Naruto and threw them into the waste basket. He'd have to make sure he threw that away later, because otherwise it would start to stink. He turned his attention back to Naruto. It seemed like Naruto's body was letting him sleep, to recover from the stress. Or maybe summoning the Kyuubi wore him out, and he just didn't have the energy to recover right now. Sasuke hoped so. It would help if Sasuke could get Naruto cleaned up so he didn't see himself covered in blood when he woke.

Sasuke turned on the water and tested it, waiting for it to be warm enough so it wouldn't shock Naruto. When it was warm enough, he was able to start washing Naruto. It felt a bit awkward to him, cleaning his teammate when he was unconscious. And…when he wasn't awake, it was harder to remember it wasn't HIS Naruto.

Sasuke washed Naruto's hair first-he didn't want the blood and…pieces to dry in at all, that would make it a nightmare to clean out. He then carefully washed off his face, after which he took off the forehead protector that was tied around his neck that he'd sort of forgotten to take off with the clothing. He threw it away too and turned back to wash Naruto's neck. His hand was almost there when his eyes registered what he was seeing and froze, midair, cloth dripping.

There was a scar on Naruto's neck. A scar as if his throat had been slit. It wasn't a deep as might be expected for such a cut, but the fact that Naruto, of all people, had a scar… Sasuke didn't think Naruto ever got scars.

When had Naruto's throat been slashed? Who'd done it? Sasuke had to take a moment and calm down before he could continue. He rinsed the rag out, watching the blood run down the drain.

He went back to what he was doing, feeling a bit numb. He went to the arms next. He worked his way down, and ended up replacing the rag because it was soaked through. He started work on the lower half of his arm and found another scar…but this wasn't a scar that looked like it would easily come from a battle…it looked as if Naruto had slashed his forearm…

Sasuke's cleaning became a hurried, frenzied thing. He didn't exactly do it harshly, but he still moved quickly. He couldn't believe there were scars on Naruto, he had to check and find out if there were any more. Especially…yes, there was a matching one on his other arm. And then another, where Sasuke had stabbed Naruto with the Chidori. Even if Sasuke felt guilty for that, at least he knew the story of it. There was one in his stomach, a stab wound-looked as if it had been deep, and it looked as if the…kunai had stabbed in the worst place for a stomach wound. And two more stab wounds aimed at the two major thigh arteries. Those were the last ones he found, even though he made sure to double check.

Naruto's body was finally clean, but Sasuke felt like in some way he'd become dirtier.

One of six scars he knew about, well, at least knew how Naruto got it. The neck wound-that COULD have been someone trying to kill Naruto who wanted the Kyuubi dead, but…even bad cuts of his tended to heal very quickly. The gut wound, too, could have been an attempt on Naruto's life. Again, dangerous, but…the stabs wounds on his thigh would not be prime targets for someone trying to fight with him. And the slashes on his forearm…Sasuke could explain away the other wounds, but those looked like an attempt suicide to him. Naruto. How could Naruto have…?

Any of these wounds if not treated quickly, or preformed right, would have been enough to kill anyone in a shortish time limit. And most wounds would have healed quickly enough they wouldn't leave a scar like that on Naruto. What had Naruto done, just kept slashing and slashing at his wrists until they couldn't heal themselves anymore?

Sasuke felt sick. The idea of Naruto trying to kill himself was so…so wrong. Sasuke had a hard time imagining it. Why would…why would he? He'd always seemed so cheerful, and, well, Sasuke knew that Naruto wasn't quite like he portrayed himself to be, but this…this was beyond that! Way beyond hiding intelligence or what kind of food he liked or wearing clothes he didn't like. For all Sasuke knew, he developed a taste for ramen, and, well, he had no idea why one would develop a taste for that jumpsuit, but maybe it was a present or something.

But trying to kill yourself-that was something else completely. Each one of those wounds spoke of Naruto almost dying at some point, and that Sasuke hadn't known about it. He dried Naruto off and carried him to Naruto's room. It wasn't too hard to get him into a simple nemaki, after which Sasuke placed him in bed and pulled the blanket over him with a tenderness he seldom used. He felt like Naruto was somehow more delicate now, more vulnerable to death. Before, Naruto seemed like this unstoppable force. He barreled through everything, managed to defeat everything, and Sasuke thought had come out of it without a single scar to show for it. Yes, he'd lost his memory, but…well, he was still ALIVE. And while Sasuke had sometimes felt like Naruto would never be back to normal, he'd always expected it to happen at some point. Like when he would drop Naruto off in Konoha after he got them away from Orochimaru, and Tsunade would heal him. And things would be right again.

Sasuke pulled a chair besides Naruto's bed and sat there, arms folded and resting on his knees and just looked at Naruto. Naruto had been untouchable before. Now…now Naruto was mortal. Naruto could be killed, had almost been killed, had apparently almost killed himself at some point. Sasuke wished, wished he knew the story behind more then just the scar he'd given Naruto himself. He wanted to know the story of each one, so he could make sure it never happened again.

Sasuke realized that he had someone he cared about again, cared about more then he'd ever have been able to imagine. He'd passed it off as Naruto was…a teammate. You were supposed to care for teammates-at least that was what Kakashi had preached. He'd even become…a friend of sorts. And Sasuke had thought it was safe to care for him, because Naruto barreled through everything, and survived.

And now Sasuke knew he could be hurt. He could die, and Sasuke might not be there to prevent it. He didn't want to loose someone he cared about again. He didn't want to feel that helpless feeling again. He'd tried, so hard, but like everything else Naruto barreled through, he'd also managed to barrel his way through Sasuke's barriers.

It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair. Sasuke didn't want to care about anyone. It hurt too much. He didn't want to loose Naruto like he'd lost his family!

Sasuke felt tired and exhausted and worn out. He was afraid to even leave the room, which was ridiculous, but he was afraid something might happen to Naruto when he was gone. It was stupid. They were home. They were reasonably safe here-Orochimaru would be too busy gloating to want to bother them for awhile, and even then he wouldn't want to HURT Naruto, at least physically. But…Sasuke still couldn't make himself leave. He was tied now, tied to Naruto in a way he thought he'd never be again. And he hated it, because it scared the fuck out of him. Unlike when he was a child, he knew what he could loose now. He knew what was at stake. And he was terrified he'd lose.

End of Day Sixty-Four

Wow. That was fun…so, thoughts? :)


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